Do You Doctor-Up Jarred Spaghetti Sauce?

[umsami]

So, when we use jarred pasta sauce (tomato-based), I always saute onions and garlic in olive oil before adding in the sauce.  We may add in some cheese as well, depending on mood.  My Mom, on the other hand, pours it straight from the jar over pasta.

What do you do?

[theelfqueen]

Most of the time.

 

[Junie]

Pasta with sauce is our go-to Sunday dinner.  It's quick and brainless.  :)

 

My kids prefer their sauce plain.  I will occasionally have meatballs or sausage on the side (cooked a day or so ahead), but I don't add spices to the sauce.

[Kerileanne99]

I totally admit to jarred pasta sauce for a quick meal!

I ALWAYS sauté mushrooms (for protein!) with onion and garlic, dump in a jar, some wine, and quickly rough chop/grate any expiring veggies..

 

Eta- we are vegetarians so our choices are influenced by that! We sometimes add Morningstar or Quorn crumbles to the sauce.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Kerileanne99

[luuknam]

You don't have an option for 'sometimes', or 'rarely'. I will sometimes/rarely throw something else in, but it doesn't depend on the brand.

[zoobie]

If I'm going to chop onions and garlic, I'll just throw them in with crushed tomatoes and make my own. I haven't bought jarred pasta sauce since Target discontinued Giada's creamy tomato sauce. That stuff was yummy. I occasionally buy jarred pizza sauce to make pizzas for the kids.

[luuknam]

I totally admit to jarred pasta sauce for a quick meal!

I ALWAYS sauté mushrooms (for protein!) with onion and garlic, dump in a jar, some wine, and quickly rough chop/grate any expiring veggies..

 

Mushrooms do not have much protein in them. Your regular mushrooms only have 3g of protein per 100g of mushrooms.

[Farrar]

I doctor about a quarter of the time probably... Though if I'm going to spend much time doctoring, I might as well just make the sauce from a can of crushed tomatoes.

[Kerileanne99]

Mushrooms do not have much protein in them. Your regular mushrooms only have 3g of protein per 100g of mushrooms.

Absolutely.. But a bit of protein for vegetarians, we take it where we can get it:)

An

[Guest]

I always add more garlic, onions, diced mushrooms if I have some in the fridge, and extra Italian seasoning - I also use bacon grease to sauté the veggies if I have some on hand. And of course a pound of ground beef. I regularly get raves about my spaghetti so the combo of that and Prego seems to do the trick.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[kewb]

If I am using jarred sauce it is because I don't feel like cooking. I'm not about to doctor up my just fine from the jar sauce.

[Mom-ninja.]

The point of pasta sauce is to have a finished product. Just like baked beans. I am baffled every time I see people "cook" canned baked beans. They add brown sugar, honey, mustard and then bake it. Um, baked beans already have a lot of sugar and you just added way more. Canned baked beans are a finished just-heat-and-serve product as is pasta sauce. 

 

Is it obvious I don't like cooking? 

[Guest]

If I'm feeling extra fancy, I'll heat it up first.  Is that what you mean??

[Seasider]

Mushrooms do not have much protein in them. Your regular mushrooms only have 3g of protein per 100g of mushrooms.

I am glad you clarified this because my initial reaction to the post you quoted was

 

"Yay!

Wait a minute..."

 

I wish they actually were high protein.

[Seasider]

More basil, fresh garlic and onions, a glug of red wine and some cooked & drained Italian sausage. And the pasta must be angel hair, according to dh.

[mamiof5]

Never. Pour it from the jar/can

[KarenNC]

I frequently will up the veggie content with sauteed garlic, onions, zucchini, spinach---whatever I have to hand---and we usually put Parmesan on afterwards. I do that with many things just trying to up our vegetable consumption (put spinach in burrito/taco mix, for instance). Sometimes I'll add cooked ground turkey, Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles, cooked Italian sausage, etc, but not very often. I love mushrooms but my daughter hates them, so I don't usually add those (or have them on the side to add in to individual servings).

[gardenmom5]

I make pasta sauce from scratch.

 

I did have someone give me a big thing of a popular brand of pasta sauce - that had a ton of sugar in it. it was so sweet it was gross.

 

eta; spelling.  eye roll.

Edited August 5, 2016 by gardenmom5

[Guest]

I add oregano and basil and a shake of cloves.

[TammyinTN]

I saute onions, peppers, olives add cooked beef or turkey and then the sauce and simmer for an hour.   We love it over spaghetti squash. 

[Kerileanne99]

I am glad you clarified this because my initial reaction to the post you quoted was

 

"Yay!

Wait a minute..."

 

I wish they actually were high protein.

Hah! I guess I should have clarified:)

Mushrooms have about 1/7 the protein as meat...but, since we don't eat meat, we tend to add mushroom to all sorts of things:)

[melbotoast]

That would defeat the purpose of using jarred sauce.

 

(Sometimes I add ground beef, but I don't think that counts.)

[Amira]

Nope. If I'm using jarred sauce, it's because I want life to be easy. I nearly always make pasta sauce because it tastes better and really isn't hard.

 

I agree that jarred pasta sauce is usually too sweet.

[KarenNC]

I make pasta sauce from scratch.

 

I did have someone give me a big thing of a popular brand of pasta sauce - that had a ton of sugar in it. it was so sweet it was gross.

 

eta; spelling.  eye roll.

 

It's hard to find pre-made without sugar (especially for a good price). I tend to keep a couple of cans of Hunt's Garlic and Herb (which didn't have sugar in the ingredients the last time I bought it, but things do change) in the cupboard as the base for doctoring. The big draw for me is not to have to spend a lot of time simmering it. I'll saute my additions, dump in the sauce, heat, and go.

[gardenmom5]

It's hard to find pre-made without sugar (especially for a good price). I tend to keep a couple of cans of Hunt's Garlic and Herb (which didn't have sugar in the ingredients the last time I bought it, but things do change) in the cupboard as the base for doctoring. The big draw for me is not to have to spend a lot of time simmering it. I'll saute my additions, dump in the sauce, heat, and go.

 

one reason manufacturers do that (other than their excuse of it makes it taste good. opinions differ).

sugar messes with the brains ability to recognize satiation - so you eat more. which means. .  . you buy more and they make more money.

Edited August 5, 2016 by gardenmom5

[luuknam]

I've never bought jarred spaghetti sauce. By the time you doctor it, isn't it just as easy to make from scratch ?

 

Throwing in a handful of spinach leaves from a box of already-washed ready-to-eat spinach is less work than getting the stupid lid off the pasta sauce jar sometimes is. :)

[luuknam]

(Sometimes I add ground beef, but I don't think that counts.)

 

Why wouldn't that count? I figured anything added (other than the pasta itself) would count...

[JustEm]

I never buy jarred sauce.

[KarenNC]

one reason manufacturers do that (other than their excuse of it makes it taste good. opinions differ).

sugar messes with the brains ability to recognize satiation - so you eat more. which means. .  . you buy more and they make more money.

 

Agreed that, especially in the US, there's basically too much sugar in everything. For pasta sauce, the reason I hear most often is that it cuts the acidity of the tomatoes. A friend of Sicilian background uses a pinch of dried mint in her homemade sauce (excuse me, "gravy"---she's from Philadelphia ;) ) instead to do that, which was an interesting new thing to me. I don't usually have dried mint on hand, so I haven't tried it myself. Her sauce is certainly good!

Edited August 5, 2016 by KarenNC

[melbotoast]

Why wouldn't that count? I figured anything added (other than the pasta itself) would count...

Because it's an ingredient that's not already in there? I know you can buy meat sauces, but I haven't liked any of them. Just makes sense in my head, I guess. I voted "other". :p

[heartlikealion]

I like Classico the way it is. I wouldn't even know how to doctor up sauce. I'm pretty useless in that dept. The one time I tried to make it from scratch it just didn't come out like it should and I thought, might as well have bought the Classico! lol

[luuknam]

I like Classico the way it is. I wouldn't even know how to doctor up sauce. I'm pretty useless in that dept. The one time I tried to make it from scratch it just didn't come out like it should and I thought, might as well have bought the Classico! lol

 

Doctoring it up can simply be adding one ingredient, like the aforementioned handful of spinach leaves (to a red sauce), or maybe a few frozen peas to some alfredo sauce. No need to overthink it. We also like Classico, btw.

 

When I make pasta sauce from scratch, it's nothing like canned sauce, fwiw. My from scratch sauce is very chunky (could possibly be considered ratatouille), and the chopped tomatoes are added last, so there's no smooth tomato sauce base or anything. I don't see a point in trying to reproduce canned pasta sauce when I'm making sauce from scratch.

[heartlikealion]

Doctoring it up can simply be adding one ingredient, like the aforementioned handful of spinach leaves (to a red sauce), or maybe a few frozen peas to some alfredo sauce. No need to overthink it. We also like Classico, btw.

 

When I make pasta sauce from scratch, it's nothing like canned sauce, fwiw. My from scratch sauce is very chunky (could possibly be considered ratatouille), and the chopped tomatoes are added last, so there's no smooth tomato sauce base or anything. I don't see a point in trying to reproduce canned pasta sauce when I'm making sauce from scratch.

 

I should have clarified. Dh has a homemade sauce that's semi chunky and very good. But when I tried to recreate it I didn't do a good job. It was one of those things where you ask the cook "how much of this?" and they say, "Oh a pinch" or "oh about this much" and demonstrate but don't have any actual measurements for you. I don't do well with that lol. I really like his sauce, but I was so disappointed I missed the mark that I felt like I should have just opened a jar.

 

 

[SKL]

I was taught to brown ground beef, drain the grease, and then add a jar of Ragu - that was our usual weekday Spaghetti dish.  Sometimes someone would make actual home-made Spaghetti sauce, but I never cared to learn that.  I actually like the weekday version better.  :P

 

In my current hectic life, it's rare enough that I have time to boil noodles, let alone make sauce.  We don't keep ground beef around because we hardly ever use it.  So if we happen to make some noodles, we'll usually use sauce from the jar as is.  It's not my favorite though.

[Rebel Yell]

Nope.

Jar of sauce

Bag of meatballs

Parmesan cheese shaker on table for those who like it.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Need an option for sometimes not dependent on brand. I picked yes doesn't everybody because I do unless I'm being lazy then it's just ground beef with sauce over pasta (and extra spices).  If I'm not lazy then I'll add in fresh chopped onions, mushrooms, red or green peppers, tomatoes, and chopped spinach. We also always add parmesan or mozzarella.  My sister also does zucchini and broccoli but that's a bit much for me.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Doctoring it up can simply be adding one ingredient, like the aforementioned handful of spinach leaves (to a red sauce), or maybe a few frozen peas to some alfredo sauce. No need to overthink it. We also like Classico, btw.

 

When I make pasta sauce from scratch, it's nothing like canned sauce, fwiw. My from scratch sauce is very chunky (could possibly be considered ratatouille), and the chopped tomatoes are added last, so there's no smooth tomato sauce base or anything. I don't see a point in trying to reproduce canned pasta sauce when I'm making sauce from scratch.

One of my favorite things to make.

[LucyStoner]

I add veggies and sometimes meat if we are eating it with pasta. it's not a time thing. It's an adding nutritional value thing.

 

I see people refer to making semi homemade sauce with canned plain tomato products (crushed, stewed, plain sauce etc) but quite often jarred "pasta sauce" goes on sale for less than the price of canned tomato products. I was taught to compare those prices carefully as a child, lol.

 

Making it strictly from scratch is nice but at least around here, starting from fresh tomatoes is the most pricey option for those without a lot of their own productive tomato plants. I'm lucky to get enough tomatoes from my patio garden to make a single tomato and basil salad each summer, lol. Occasionally I'll order a case of tomatoes from a farm and go to town freezing from scratch sauce.

 

Honestly, we don't eat a lot of Spagetti sauce because never ending crock pots of spagetti sauce and pasta were very often my childhood dinners for days on end and I got a wee tired of it. It's the food I most associate with the gap between my FOOs food budget and payday, which could stretch for quite a bit. When we had money for food again, mom would get some pizza toppings and cheese, make some dough and we'd use up the last bit of that sauce, thankful for anything but more Spagetti.

 

Our most common use of sauce is pizza night.

Edited August 5, 2016 by LucyStoner

[heartlikealion]

Pizza sauce and marinara are very different, at least according to dh lol

[Guest]

No, i don't doctor jarred sauce. If I am using it, it's to be as convenient as possible. I most often make my own pasta sauce (pizza sauce too). So, if I'm putting forth effort, I'm making it all myself and if I'm going for immediate dinner, I pour it straight from the jar.

[Alice]

Occasionally. I used to always add ground beef and when I did that I'd usually have browned the beef with garlic and onions and then I would also add basil and oregano to the sauce. 

 

But now I have a vegetarian kid so I hardly ever make meat sauce. And most of my kids like pesto better as a sauce. More typically when we have pasta will be to have pasta with veggies and then optional toppings like pesto, cheese, possibly some kind of meat (sausages). Sometimes jarred sauce is also an optional topping and when I do that I just heat it up. 

[poppy]

I add a little olive oil, black pepper and dried oregano.  Easy peasey.

[alisoncooks]

I add beef.

 

 

To be honest, I've been making it from scratch for a while....until recently when we were in a time-pinch, and I bought 2 jars of sauce, added beef, and called it done.  I took one bite and looked at my DH and said...."This is better than my homemade sauce, isn't it?"  His response was that they were different and both good.  To which I thought, Shoot!  I'm just buying the sauce from now on!

[ScoutTN]

Lots and lots of garlic

also onions, bell peppers and sometimes mushrooms

fresh herbs from my garden - parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, a bit of sage

 

Depending on how I'm serving it, Italian sausage.

[DawnM]

I made the mistake once of getting cheap store brand sauce.  I swear it was tomato paste, water, and a few oregano sprinkles.  Yuck.

 

When we buy decent sauce, I only add parmesan cheese on top.

 

I often make my own, but don't add it to already made stuff.   I put a can of tomato sauce (or paste with water) and some pesto and mix it and I am done.  We like it that way.

 

I buy the big pesto jar at Costco, bring it home, portion it into ice cube trays, and then stick the cubes in a zip lock.  That way it doesn't go bad and I can portion it out for various meals.

[SproutMamaK]

We do, but mostly because we have a local store that sell very cheap, frozen, pre-chopped veggies. When I'm browning the meat I literally just reach into the freezer, grab a handful of onion, diced, mushrooms and peppers, a spoon of pre-diced garlic, and I'm done. They even have a pre-diced "omelette and seasoning mix" that's an even mix of onions, red and green peppers, mushroom, and chopped spinach. If I had to do all that myself, I probably wouldn't bother for a lazy pasta kind of dinner, but if I'm already cooking meat and I just have to dump a handful of stuff in it... that's the kind of cooking I can manage. ;)

[SparklyUnicorn]

I don't buy it.  All I can taste in it is the onions so I make my own.

 

 

 

 

[tm919]

Sort of. I think the sauce is fine without, but I usually put whatever vegetables are aging in it so they don't go to waste.... and in the summer whatever is in the garden (e.g., basil which it seems like you can never eat enough of).

Edited August 5, 2016 by tm919

[cjzimmer1]

to me doctoring the sauce, includes simmering the sauce so no I don't do that.  But I will frequently cook veggies and or meat.  But I just dump it on the drained pasta and dump on the sauce and serve (no extra heating of the sauce either).  So to me my additions are to the dish not the sauce.  Just like sprinkling cheese on top is adding to the dish as a whole not just the sauce.

[Katy]

Basil, Parsley, and Garlic for sure.  DH prefers Oregano too, but that tastes rather like pizza for me.

 

Onions sometimes.  Usually meat or beans for protein.